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| | In October 2008, before Obama was elected, Chu spoke about how uneconomical battery-powered cars are. Chu said, "Current batteries for hybrid and electric cars last just five to six years, take a car only 40 miles on a charge—and cost $10,000. These aren’t going to sweep the market." <ref>http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/37422/title/U.S._must_invest_in_technologies_to_avoid_energy_crisis</ref> | | In October 2008, before Obama was elected, Chu spoke about how uneconomical battery-powered cars are. Chu said, "Current batteries for hybrid and electric cars last just five to six years, take a car only 40 miles on a charge—and cost $10,000. These aren’t going to sweep the market." <ref>http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/37422/title/U.S._must_invest_in_technologies_to_avoid_energy_crisis</ref> |
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| − | Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work. "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," he said before becoming Secretary of Energy. <ref>see [http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122904040307499791.html ''WJS'' Dec. 12, 2008]</ref> | + | Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work. "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," he said before becoming Secretary of Energy. <ref>see [http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122904040307499791.html ''WJS'' Dec. 12, 2008]</ref> Chu has been reluctant to embrace nuclear power, even though it emits no greenhouse gases, out of concerns with disposing its waste and the risk of nuclear proliferation. |
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| | ==Career== | | ==Career== |
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| | * Professor of physics, and of molecular and cell biology at University of California, Berkeley | | * Professor of physics, and of molecular and cell biology at University of California, Berkeley |
| | * Worked at AT&T's Bell Labs in the 1980s <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7784969.stm Profile: Steven Chu] BBC, December 16, 2008</ref> | | * Worked at AT&T's Bell Labs in the 1980s <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7784969.stm Profile: Steven Chu] BBC, December 16, 2008</ref> |
| − | | + | * Chu helped create the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) at UC-Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and the University of Illinois — a far-ranging $500 million project researching alternative fuels funded by BP (formerly British Petroleum). EBI investigates ways to use grasses instead of corn to make biofuel ethanol more efficiently with less environmental and economic impact |
| − | ==Associations & Beliefs==
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| | * Member of Copenhagen Climate Council: a private collaboration between science and business to promote a 2009 UN global warming projects. | | * Member of Copenhagen Climate Council: a private collaboration between science and business to promote a 2009 UN global warming projects. |
| − | * Member of Project Steve: which advocates the teaching of Darwinian evolution <ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/california_global_warming/2009/02/14/182040.html California Weather Exposes Fiction of Global Warming] NewsMax, February 14, 2009</ref>
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| − | * Is against nuclear power
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| | ==Quotes== | | ==Quotes== |